


A Stupid Dare

by ubernoxa



Category: Mötley Crüe, guns and roses - Fandom
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:20:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22020211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ubernoxa/pseuds/ubernoxa
Summary: It was all a stupid dare that shouldn’t have been said. When Mark mentioned the dare, he didn’t think Delilah would accept it, but she did.When they first walked into a bar on Sunset Strip, they didn’t know what to expect. But their naive eyes were quickly opened to the world of sex, drugs, and rock n roll.How much could a simple dare change ones life?
Relationships: Axl Rose/ Original Female Character(s), Duff McKagan/Original Female Character(s), Duff McKagan/Reader, Nikki Sixx/Original Female Character(s), Tommy Lee/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 8





	1. The Dare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where the whole story begins.

A Dare  


It was all a dare.  
It was all a stupid dare that shouldn’t have even been said. 

That dare was the reason why Delilah and Beth walked the streets of the strip trying to choose the least intimidating bar on the strip to enter. 

It all started when after the Friday’s afternoon service when Mark’s younger brother ran into the storage room, telling second hand stories about seeing the Devil on sunset strip. 

During every story, Beth would look over to Delilah and Matt to see if they were still trying to contain their laughter. Noticing his friend’s hidden laughter at his younger brother’s stories, Mark ushered his younger brother out of the room to save him from the ridicule and back to play with the other little kids who were a couple rooms down. 

They had all heard those stupid stories before. At 18 Mark knew the stories were metaphors or something stupid along those lines, but to his naive 8 year old brother, they were real. 

“How about next time you guys don’t make fun of my little brother. He is only eight years old and doesn’t know any better,” Mark almost wined as he plopped down on the large armchair. 

“We weren’t laughing,” Delilah said between giggles making Mark roll his eyes. 

“Fine, since you think it’s so funny that my brother is scared of those stupid stories then why don’t you go visit Sunset Strip since you’re not scared,” Mark’s words caused the room to go silent. 

They weren’t afraid of the ‘Devil’ on Sunset Strip. They were afraid of something more ‘reasonable’, they were afraid of getting caught sneaking out. 

Mark sat cockily in his chair as he watched Delilah contemplate it. Maybe she had come to her senses and would go apologize to his little brother. There was no way she would accept the challenge. She wasn’t that stupid. They all knew the consequences of one of them got caught. 

“What do I get into one of the bars?” Mark leaned in closer on the edge of his seat as his smirk grew into a grin. She wanted to make it harder? 

Was she seriously thinking about doing it? This was going to be an easy win.

“I will do all of your chores for a month, and if you can’t get in then you’ll do my chores for a month,” Delilah reached forward instantly ready to agree to Mark’s dare. For Delilah that meant the potential for no more babysitting on Saturdays, but for Mark that meant the potential for not mopping the church floors for a month. 

The room was silent with the raised stakes. They had wagered chores when playing games before, but never a months work. 

Jesus Christ, Beth said under her breathe as she watched Delilah agree to the terms. 

“So Matt, what do you think we should do with all of this free time we are going to have,” Mark leaned back in his chair, a smirk covering his face. 

“Wait we? I only agreed to do Mark’s not Matt’s too,” Delilah was now on the edge of her seat, panic in her eye and pillow in her hand ready to smack Mark. 

“Delilah Marie Sanderson, you place that pillow down and apologize to Mark for threatening him or if you want you can go upstairs and pray for forgiveness,” Delilah sighed as she heard he mother scold her. 

She wasn’t actually going to hit Mark with the pillow, and even if she did it’s a pillow. It wouldn’t have hurt. 

Part of Delilah wanted to tell her mom that it was only a joke and that she wasn’t actually going to hit him, but she had fought that fight hundreds of times with her mother and had lost every single one. Talking back would only make matters worse. 

Delilah took a deep breath and looked towards Mark, “I apologize for my unladylike behavior. Will you forgive me?”

“I do and thank you for your apology, Delilah,” Mark cockily replied. 

The second her mother left the back room, Delilah threw the pillow at Mark in attempt to wipe the smirk off of his face. 

Unable to control herself and her laughter, Beth fell out of the wooden chair that she was sitting in. 

“What did you mean by we?” Delilah asked again waiting for either Mark or Matt to respond. 

“Well we assumed it’s the usual 2 versus 2,” Matt shrugged immediately ending Beth’s laughter. 

“Excuse me?” Beth only slightly raised her voice slightly in fear of Delilah’s mom coming back from the other room to scold them again. 

“You’re excused,” Beth rolled her eyes as Mark and Matt laughed at Mark’s stupid joke. 

“What are you afraid you couldn’t get in?” Mark asked Beth. 

Beth sat back on her chair and replied, “No I can get in, easily.” 

The lie rolled off her tongue in a little more panicked of a tone than she had expected. 

————— 

Delilah followed Beth upstairs to Beth’s bedroom where their alleged sleepover would be taking place. 

Once in the room with the door closed, Delilah grabbed the variety of clothing that she brought to potentially alter. 

“Which one would be the easiest to modify?” Beth looked at the variety of black dresses that Delilah had brought. 

“They’re all kinda the same,” Delilah commented as she held the dresses in front of her. Beth let out a small chuckle and grabbed one at random. 

Delilah watched as Beth cut and sewed the modified outfit. 

To say that Delilah was nervous was an understatement. She was nervous that they would get caught trying to leave after curfew. She was worried that Beth’s or her parents would catch them in their lie of a cover story that was a sleep over. 

Dinner came and went with no suspicion, besides Beth’s mom asked what they were sewing which Delilah answered with, “Beth is adding some color and designs to one of my old dresses.” It was a rehearsed answer, but Beth’s mother didn’t bat an eye at Delilah’s response, as expected. 

The next two hours were filled with the two girls actually ‘adding some color’ to an old dress, so when asked tomorrow they had proof.

Then, right after they said their good nights to Beth’s family, they got to work on their makeup. 

Both girls knew very little about Sunset Strip, but from what they did know, they thought did they an ok job at mimicking. 

They both knew that black was a common color on the stroke, so both girls wore black with heavy black eyeliner. 

They also knew that people on the strip showed skin, and this where Delilah was getting second thoughts about the bet. 

Delilah had lost track of the amount of apologies that Beth had given her. Beth has transformed her black dress that rested at the knees to a half shirt and a float black skirt that barely covered Delilah’s butt. One light breeze would leave her exposed. 

“I’m sorry,” Beth said again as she caught Delilah messing with the length of the skirt. 

“You’re fine, we don’t have time to fix it, so it will just have to work,” Delilah sighed as she tried to pull the skirt down a little more. She wished she had taken Beth up on the offer of trying the skirt on earlier, but now it was too late to be turning the sewing machine back on and make alterations. If the sewing machine turned on, someone would want to know what they were really up to. 

Beth and Delilah stared at themselves in the mirror barely recognizing their own reflection. 

“I’m going to Hell,” Beth unknowingly said aloud. 

“Well at least we will be in Hell together then,” Delilah replied with a reassuring smile.


	2. The Bar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter where Beth is a terrible friend and wimp.

“ I can’t do this,” Beth whispered out as the two of them waited in line. 

“Seriously?” Delilah hadn’t meant for the harsh tone to come out in her voice, but it did anyway. 

“If our parents find out..” 

“They aren’t going to find out if we don’t tell them. We are almost at the front of the line to get in. Just 10 more minutes come on Beth!” Beth ignored her friend’s begging tone as she continued to shake her head. What if Mark or Matt told someone Delilah and her went to a bar at a strip? God already knew so it was only a matter of time before everyone else found out! 

“Delilah I can’t. I’m not the one who made the deal.”

“You could have said no. We have spent all night trying to get into this bar. We have destroyed one of my nice dresses to make whatever outfit this is. The sleepover cover was your idea, don’t act like you’re so innocent in all of this. I’m not making you do anything you didn’t want to do earlier today. You chose to come here,” Delilah spat back. Who did Beth think she was? A Saint? Beth was as guilty as her in this situation. 

“You always do this,” Beth began to say before Delilah interrupted her with a frustrated groan. 

“What do you mean? You’re the one who said we could get in easy!” 

“I get it that you and your mother fight a lot, but don’t bring me in on your acts of rebellion . I’m leaving. You can come with me or stay,” Beth stared down Delilah waiting for a response. After a couple of moments with no answer Beth left Delilah alone on Sunset Strip. 

Delilah weaved her way through the herds of people in attempt to not only grow the courage to ask someone to take a picture of her at the bar so she had proof to give to Mark, but to also find the least intimidating person to ask to take her picture. 

That’s when she saw him. He had shorter dark hair and was laughing at someone’s joke. Instead of leather covering him from head to toe, he wore some sort of T-shirt with a logo Delilah didn’t recognize and jean pants. He reminded her of Mark. 

“Hey,” Delilah walked up next to him with the camera hanging around her next. 

He smiled sweetly and responded, “hey babe.” Within seconds Delilah regretted talking to him. She felt his eyes scan her up and down making her feel gross. 

Delilah began to take a couple of steps back, but he grabbed her wrist and pull her over to him. 

“Where are you going? You just got here?” Delilah tried releasing his grip, but was unsuccessful. 

Mag stood across the bar waiting for her drink to be made when she noticed a brunette try to squeeze her way through the crowd. The girl was alone which was a little odd, but Mags tried not to judge because she currently stood at the bar alone waiting for a drink before her brother’s band played. Mag’s eyes never left the brunette in the short skirt, something was off about her. 

Mags smiled as she saw the brunette shyly approached a group of guys at the other end of the bar. She let out a sigh of relief that she didn’t know she was holding. Mags almost looked away, but for Delilah’s sake, luckily she didn’t. 

“Hey babe I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Delilah shared a confused look as a blonde, Mag, walked towards her. Then it clicked in her head to what the blond was doing. 

She leaned in for a hug and whispered, “Follow me and I’ll get you away from these creeps.”

Without hesitation, she latched onto the girl’s hands and followed her like a lost puppy to what appeared to be some sort of back room. Once the two made it through the first set out doors Delilah let out a sigh of relief and breathed in the less stuffy air. It was nice to be somewhere where she wasn’t constantly being bumped by someone. 

“So I gotta ask are you like a hooker or something?” Delilah’s face went tomato red at the girl’s comment. 

Noticing her mistake she added, “not like there is anything wrong with that. You do you, everyone has to make a living.” Mag immediately regretted the words as they left her mouth. She could already hear her brother scolding her on why she doesn’t have a lot of friends. 

“No I’m not a,” Delilah paused and looked around the hallway to make sure no one would hear her, “hooker.”

Mags watched Delilah and couldn’t help but laugh at the girl’s concern over someone hearing her say hooker. This had to be her first time on the strip. 

Delilah scrunched her face, and began to turn around to walk away. First a group of guys wouldn’t let her leave and now this girl she just met was calling her a hooker. Maybe Beth was the smart one for giving up on the dare.

“No come back,” Mags quickly yelled as she chased Delilah down the hallway. She didn’t want the brunette to go back out to the bar in fear that the guy would begin to harass her again.

“Why so you can make fun of me?” Delilah’s voice was sharp as she turned towards the blond again. 

“No, so that creep doesn’t find you and harass you again,” Delilah let out a sigh of relief at the girl’s words. So this girl wasn’t out to insult her. 

“I’m Mag or Mags. I’m not too picky,” Delilah shook the blond’s hand as she started to follow her back down the dingy hallway. 

“My name is Delilah. Do you come to bars like this often?” Delilah questioned Mag as they continued to wander what she assumed to be back stage. 

“Yeah, actually. My brother is in a band and invites me whenever he has a show, I try to go to as many as I can,” Mag replied the smile never leaving her face. She opened a rusty metal door and the sound of conversation filled their ears. 

The room wasn’t much bugger than Delilah’s bedroom, but it seemed cozy enough. There was a large green couch that had without a doubt seen better days. Some random chairs were haphazardly placed throughout the room and to her right Delilah saw a table covered with alcohol. Delilah froze for a second as she saw all the empty beers that were scattered throughout the room. She didn’t know which made her more nervous, the booze or the fact that the room was filled with a bunch of drunks only a few minutes before her and Mags got there. Mags herself had never gotten drunk, but she has heard countless stories from her mother about what happens to someone when they get drunk. 

“Wow look who finally decided to show up!” Delilah stood frozen as Mags walked towards the voice that was coming from another room. 

The voice quickly revealed himself as he walked into the room to great Mags. 

“Come on now, you know I wouldn’t miss one of your shows!” Mag ruffled up her brother’s hair earning a chuckle from him. 

Steven looked at Delilah and back at Mags, causing a flash of realization to cross her face. Steven couldn’t deny it that his sister’s new friend was pretty. She had long brown hair that went well below her shoulders and her eyes were like staring into the ocean.

“This is Del, some creep was bugging her so I thought why not bring her back here,” Mags gently pulled Delilah over towards her brother causing Delilah to stumble. 

“Del, this is my brother in the band I was telling you about, Steven,” 

“Nice to meet you,” Steven stared at the brunette that firmly shook his hand. He shared a smile at her that made all of Delilah’s worries melt away. Maybe not everyone who drank alcohol was bad? 

“I gotta finish some setup stuff with guys, see y’all after the show,” Delilah watched as Steven ran off in the direction he came before he disappeared. 

“Del?” Delilah turned towards Mags asking what the deal was with her apparently new nickname. 

“Well Delilah sounded too prim and proper. I didn’t want him to think you were snooty or apart of some weird religious cult type of thing,” Mag responded as if she had done nothing wrong at all. Delilah knew what a nick name was, right? Everyone had one.

“So what if I’m religious?” The words that were meant to sound vicious came out as stuttered and week. 

Mag turned around the instant the words left Delilah’s mouth. Delilah was sitting on the green couch picking at her fingernails. That’s when everything clicked. It all made sense. The poorly done makeup. The reason why Delilah was all alone. The weird stitched together shirt and skirt that didn’t flow right. Originally Mag just assumed that Delilah didn’t have a lot of money. Nothing was wrong with that because none of them had any money at all. For some reason the more Mag thought about it, the more Delilah being from a religious family made sense. 

“Sorry I didn’t mean anything buy it. If it helps my name is Magnolia, my parents were hippies if you couldn’t tell,” Delilah smiled at Mag’s calming voice. She couldn’t tell if it was the truth or not, so she decided to give Mags the benefit of the doubt. 

Mag handed Delilah a beer in order to make amens. That’s when another thought hit her as she watched Delilah stare at the beer in front of her. 

“Have you ever had booze before?” The words left Mag’s moth before she even knew it. 

“Does the blood of Christ count?” Delilah continued to stare at the beer in Mag’s hand. 

“I don’t think so,” Mag’s laughter filled the room as she placed Delilah’s beer on the table. 

“Then no” 

“You can have it if you want, but if you don’t that’s fine, more for me! If you’re nervous though it might help you calm down,” Delilah’s didn’t avert her gaze from the bottle that was placed in front of it. She eventually broke her gaze and sent a small smile Mag’s direction.

Delilah let a sigh of defeat escape her as she reached for the bottle and took her first sip. She would probably be here for at least another hour, so having something to calm her nerves would help. Plus she was already going to hell anyway, and right now she didn’t want to be stuck in the same circle of hell as Beth the ditcher, so bottoms up. If she does something to make things worse then she’ll just ask for forgiveness tomorrow. 

Mags let a laugh escape her as she watched Delilah spit out the beer. 

“Why do people drink this?” Delilah wined as she put the beer back on the table. It was by far one of the worst things she had ever tasted. It was worse than the time her mother tried cooking clams. The wine from church had always tasted very sweet, but this beer, this beer tasted what Delilah imagined urine would taste like. 

“You get used to the flavor. The more expensive stuff actually tastes a lot better. I used to date a guy who had rich ass parents, and the alcohol he could get his hands on was amazing. The wine and champagne went down so smooth, god I miss it,” Mags leaned back into the couch as she fantasized about the wine that she could still taste on her lips from all those months ago.

“What happened?” Mags was pulled from her fantasy as Delilah stared her down. 

“You know how these things go, it just didn’t work out,” Delilah nodded pretending to understand what Mags was talking about. 

After a couple of moments of silence, cheers came from beyond the steel door and music started to play. 

“Come on dance with me!” Mags cheered as she tried to pull Delilah from the couch. There was no way that they were going to be sitting for the next hour in silence as her brother’s band played. 

“I don’t know how!” 

“It doesn’t matter, it’s just you and me in the room. Plus I’m not that good either so you can make fun of me too,” After a couple seconds of contemplating, Delilah gave in and began to dance around the room to the music that was playing on stage. 

Delilah followed Mags lead and danced around the room singing and eventually jumping on the couch with her. In between each song Mags would tell Delilah some of the meaning being the lyrics. Along with which parts were her favorite. 

It was different than anything Delilah had ever heard before. It felt real. 

About half way through one of the songs, Mags grabbed Delilah’s camera off of the couch and took a picture of them dancing on the table which quickly lead to at least 10 more random pictures of the two of them. 

At the end of the song, loud cheering from the stage area filled the room.

“Is it over?,” Mags nodded her head as she picked up some of the polaroids that had fallen on the ground. 

“You can stay with us as long as you like. My brother has a truck and he can drive you home. I should warn you though, I’m not sure how you feel about foul or trashy language, but my brother’s band....they use it a lot,” Mags felt awkward as she warned Delilah. Based off how cautious Delilah was about saying the word hooker, swearing probably wasn’t up her ally. 

“Thanks! If your brother is up for driving me then I’m fine with it.” Delilah couldn’t help but feel a sigh of relief at the thought of not having to bike home. 

“That was sick dude!” Delilah stood up as she heard an unknown voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this story recently popped in my head so I thought why not get it going


	3. The Backstage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens backstage stays backstage.

Chapter 3

Delilah appreciated Mag’s warning about her brother’s bad, but it was much worse than Delilah had expected. 

The two of them had migrated to the corner by the unopened beers. Not because they wanted quick access to booze, but because Mags knew Delilah was beyond uncomfortable. Mags attempted to exchange several glances at her brother earlier to try to signal to change their conversation, but they went unnoticed. After 20 minutes of Mags trying to block out her brothers from Delilah’s ears, she had had enough. 

The longer the awkward silence between the two of them grew, the more Mags wanted to kick herself in the ass. How could conversations be this difficult? 

Mags looked over towards her brother’s band and quickly noticed that the groupies were..enjoying themselves. Mags was praying that Delilah didn’t think she was like all the groupies that filled the room. 

“Where are you from?” Delilah was pulled from her thoughts as she finished adjusting her skirt when she heard Mag’s voice.

“About a 20 minute bike ride North of here. How about you?”

“Originally Ohio, but for now I’m staying with some associate of mine like a 10ish minute walk from here. It has this really pretty garden that I’m currently growing tomatoes in,” Mag replied trying to avoid her brother’s band increasing in volume. Mags couldn’t believe that she was talking about her damn tomato garden backstage at a bar. 

“Sounds lovely,” Delilah took the final sip of her beer and placed it on a nearby table. 

“Well I believe some celebrations are in order,” After a couple of seconds Delilah realized that Mag was referring to her first beer that she had finished. 

Mags pulled Delilah out of their corner and began to dance to whatever song was playing. Delilah watched in awe as Mag danced without a care in the world that people were watching her. Then Mag pulled Delilah in for a spin.

“Hey Popcorn, who’s the girl with your sister? Is she related to slash or something?” Axl asked watching the two girls dance in the corner. 

“Shut up Axl, just because we both have curly hair doesn’t mean we are related,” Slash let out a groan as he downed the rest of his drink earning a few laughs. 

“Some guys were bugging her by the bar, so Mags brought her back here to get her away from them. She seems nice, but shy. Don’t scare her,” Axl rolled his eye’s at Steven’s reply. He was more curious than anything, she want really his ‘type’ anyway. He much preferred the groupie next to him.

“Wanna do shots?” Delilah stopped dancing and nodded her head yes at Mag’s question.

She was having a good time, and honestly what’s the worse that could happen? Plus she was having some of the most fun she had every had, why make it stop?

Delilah heard her mother’s voice in the back of her head already lecturing her on how indecent and stupid she was being, but she just tried to ignore the voices. 

“So since it’s your first time, I’m going to just give you half a shot. Since I am a wimp I’m going to give myself half a shot too,” Delilah agreed again with Mags. Anything to get her mother’s voice out of her head. 

Truth be told, Mags wasn’t a wimp. She just didn’t want to seem like too much of an alcoholic in front of Delilah. 

“Just a warning, it’s going to burn,” Mags handed the very eager Delilah her shot and they no both took it together. 

Delilah almost dropped her glass as she let out a couple of coughs. 

It didn’t just burn, it made her whole throat go raw. Why did all alcohol taste terrible? 

Mags let out more cheering in celebration of Delilah’s first shot, earning a cheer from Delilah. 

Without warning, Delilah felt someone brush against her and grab the bottle of vodka. 

“Hey Duff, we were drinking that,” Mags whined as the tall blonde drank the vodka. Delilah was shocked as he drank the clear alcohol as if it was water. 

Once Duff was done with his rather large sips he held the bottle in the air just out of reach of Mags, teasing her.

Steven watched as Duff teased his younger sister and her new friend. He rolled his eyes as he watched Duff take another sip. He was obviously showing off to Del. 

“Hey, Mags and Del why don’t ya grab a couple of beers and join us,” Steven yelled across the room. 

“Gladly,” Mags huffed back as she walked over towards her brother. 

Delilah noticed that Duff had lowered the bottle of vodka when Steven talked. She wondered if he was in trouble of something along those lines. She shrugged it off and snatched the bottle of vodka from him.   
That’s when she realized she didn’t have a plan B. 

She expected him to be mad or annoyed, but she saw a smirk on his face and a small laugh escape his lip when they made eye contact. Did he lower it on purpose to see if she would grab it? The two of them were frozen for a second trying to decide what to do next. Delilah started to run towards Mags, but she didn’t get very far before she felt his arms wrapped around her waist pulling her in close. 

That’s when Delilah realized she had never been close to a guy like this. Of course she had hugged her brothers and her father, but this was different. Duff was an incredibly tall, attractive, and talented musician. She could feel her heart stop as the tall blonde gently tapped against her bare stomach. Hundreds of butterflies hatch in her stomach. 

Mags immediately shot her attention towards Duff and Del, ready to pounce on Duff if he crossed the line. She liked Del and didn’t want Duff fucking it up.

“Calm down mama bear, he’s not going to fuck her right in front of us.”

Mags quickly shot Axl a death glare before returning her gaze towards Delilah and Duff. 

“Now I’m very curious to know what your plan was,” Goosebumps danced across Delilah’s skin as he whispered into her ear. 

He felt her heart rate speed up with every word he said. This was going to be fun.

“Would you believe me if I said I really didn’t have a plan?” Duff’s and Delilah’s laughs filled the room. Delilah wasn’t going to admit that she thought she could outrun him, so she could give the vodka back to Mags. He was at least a head taller than her.

“Not having a damn plan? Now that’s something I can drink to,” Not knowing what to say, Delilah remained silent and handed Duff the bottle of Vodka. She was too nervous that she would say the wrong thing in front of him. She had lost her voice completely. 

She watched the tall blonde drink the vodka again. His bleach blonde hair had a patch of brown in it. She felt the patch of hair twist around her fingers as she reached up and touched it. When their eyes met again, Delilah let go of his hair and looked the other way as her cheeks went red and embarrassment took over. 

Like most of the other guys in the room he wore leather pants, cowboy boots and some T-shirt that she didn’t recognize the brand. They all had the teased up hair that seemed to be common in the strip

Once Duff finished another sip of vodka he looked over towards everyone else. He smirked as he saw Steven watching his every move. He was either jealous or didn’t trust him with Del. Maybe even both.

Delilah almost melted as he put his hand on the small of her back, guiding her back to everyone else. Duff sat down on the coach, the last open space, and lightly tugged Delilah to sit in his lap. Without hesitation Delilah followed the tall blond and sat down. She leaned back into him when he wrapped his arms around her waist. 

Delilah quickly realized that she was out of her element when everyone stared to talk about all of these different bands that she had never heard of. She felt like a fish out of water, and part of her wanted nothing more to disappear. 

“You haven’t heard of them?” Delilah felt her cheeks flood with chromosome as she felt the judgement in Axl’s tone. 

“How about the next time they have a gig, you and I can go watch them. If you think we are good, you’ll love them,” Delilah’s heart felt like it would break through her chest at Duff’s words. 

“Sounds good,” Duff replied her answer with a sly smile. Delilah wasn’t sure how she could sneak out again, but she wanted to. No, she needed to.

The conversation quickly changed and Delilah felt a sigh of release escape her when she was no longer the center of attention. Duff was absentmindedly tapping and tracing shapes on Delilah’s stomach while he talked with his band mates about the show. He didn’t notice what he was doing until Delilah squirmed. He smirked as he found the small area above her right hip that would make her squirm. It was fun teasing her. 

“Hey popcorn,” Duff yelled holding up two fingers. Delilah giggled at Steven’s alleged nick name. So nicknames were common around here

Once Steven passed the two beers to Duff he offered his second to Delilah. She quickly accepted and began to drink a little too fast for her own good. She was hoping that it would help with her nerves like Mags had said. One beer turned into two which quickly turned into three. Delilah was giggling left and right. She was having the time of her life, and didn’t have an ounce of regret. 

With everyone else too drunk or distracted in their own conversations, Duff grabbed onto her waist and spun her around, so they were sitting face to face. 

“You are an absolute light weight,” Delilah frowned at the blond’s words as he smirked. She looked him dead in the eye wanting to slap that smith off of his face.

“Well no shit, this is my first time drinking,” Delilah froze as the word shit came out of her mouth. Duff watched as the giggly girl frowned and immediately apologized for her language. 

First the girl was drinking her first drink tonight, and now apologizing about swearing? She wasn’t from the Strip.

“I will never fucking forgive you. I never said being a light weight was a bad thing,” Delilah laughed again at Duff’s response. 

“God I love this song! It’s just so...real!” Delilah began to twist and mover her hips in attempt to dance to the song without standing up. Duff tried to steady his breathing as Delilah was unknowing giving Duff a lap dance. 

Duff looked around the room to see if anyone else had noticed what was happening, and his eyes immediately locked with Axl’s who was currently getting a blow job. Axl smirked and mouthed something he hoped Delilah didn’t notice. 

“Have you...ever seen a bass?” Duff asked Delilah in attempt to move things to another room. 

“Yeah, why?” Delilah stopped dancing and shot Duff a confused look. She might not be from Sunset Strip, but she knew what a bass was. 

He quickly offered to show her his, and she immediately agreed curious to what it looked like. Little naive Delilah had no idea what his true intentions were. 

The two of them snuck out of the backstage room and headed down another hallway. 

“Where are we..” 

Before Delilah could finish the sentence Duff had pinned her against the wall and kissed her, something he had been wanting to do since he saw her standing in the corner with Mel. Duff almost lost it as he heard Delilah moan in pleasure from the kiss. She was on cloud nine and never wanted to come down. 

This was her second kiss, and comparing her first kiss to her second would be like comparing a small town fair to Disney World. She felt like she could take over the damn world as she helped Duff take his shirt off. 

“Fuck,” she mumbled under her breathe. Bottom line, he was hot. 

Once Duff had worked his hands down to her crotch, Delilah moaned again. That when Duff felt how wet she really was. 

“Oh fuck,” Delilah moaned as she heard him mutter those words.

He was about to rip her panties off when he heard Axl say, “Hey Del, Mags and Steven are heading out. They’re looking for you.” The whole time Axl spoke, Duff wanted to punch the damn smirk off of his face. 

“We should...” Duff motioned to Delilah who was trying to steady her breath and calm herself down from what happened. 

Her heart still threatened to break though her chest as she nodded and Duff helped her walk back to the backstage area. 

“Where have y’all been?” Steven asked the second he saw Duff and Delilah back in the room. Was he agitated?

“I was showing Delilah the stage and shit. Apparently she had never been back stage before,” the lie smoothly rolled off his lips and Delilah nodded. 

“Well we are headed out, don’t forget your pictures,” Duff walked over to the photos he had been looking at earlier with Axl and noticed that more had joined the pile.

Before he could take a second to look through them, Mags grabbed them and threw them in some plastic bag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! I am really excited for the next couple of chapters!


	4. Chapter 4: The Hell House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Delilah visits the ‘Hell House’

Chapter 4

The morning sun shined through the dark red curtains causing pink light to fill Beth’s room. Unlike most 18 year old’s rooms at the time, there wasn’t a single poster hanging on her baby pink walls. Instead a small cross hung a over her bed, and polaroids of her, Delilah, Mark, and Matt were taped to the back of her closet door out of direct sight. It was Beth’s small action of defiance against her parents. 

Beth’s eyes fluttered awake to the light filling her room. She let out a sigh of relief as she found Delilah curled up in a ball on the other side of the bed. It was good to see her safe and sound. 

She had heard a loud truck outside her house early at about 4 in the morning. Beth couldn’t sleep knowing Delilah was out on the strip alone. She tossed and turned all night thinking about how stupid Delilah was to abandon her and stay in line for the bar. 

At 4 in the morning she heard someone help Delilah climb through the window. It was a girl’s voice who was probably no older than her that helped her climb through the window.   
Beth stayed frozen in bed pretending to sleep as the two girls struggled to open the simple latch. Beth assumes that they must have been drunk, and she was right. They could figure it out by themselves. 

“Good morning,” Beth said earning a groan from Delilah who dug her dead deeper into her pillow. 

“Come on sleeping beauty time to get up and into the shower. You smell like you haven’t showered in a week!” Delilah groaned at Beth’s comment and pulled the comforter over her head in attempt to hide herself from her problems aka Beth. 

Beth let out a loud groan as she pulled Delilah out of her bed and onto the floor. Delilah felt as if her head was going to explode while she let out another groan. She tried to crawl back to the bed, but Beth dragged her by her arm into the bathroom. Beth was panting by the time she finished. She looked at Delilah who had surrendered and was now getting into the shower welcoming the warm water on her sweaty skin.

Beth wondered if Delilah was hung over from however much she drank last night because she was acting like it. Beth prayed that she wasn’t, not wanting to deal with the puking that was soon to come. 

Beth wanted to ask Delilah thousands of questions, but she knew she would get nowhere with Delilah’s current state. 

Delilah stood with her face directly under the warm shower water. She could feel the mascara, foundation, and the rest of her makeup washing down her face, but she didn’t care. Memories of last night filled her head she and she couldn’t help but smile as at them. She could still feel Duff’s hands and lips on her as they made out. She wanted more. 

“Good morning sunshine,” Delilah walked out of the bathroom to hear Beth’s chipper tone. 

“Morning!” Delilah replied. Yeah she was mad at Beth, but this wasn’t worth a fight. The only thing coming out of this is more people finding out about last night which is the last thing she wanted. 

“Sorry for leaving you last night,” the words flew out of Beth’s mouth. 

Delilah froze in place as she heard Beth’s half hearted apology. Was she seriously apologizing? Beth wimped out and left Delilah out to dry alone on the strip. That wasn’t the first time that Beth wimped our, and Delilah knew it wouldn’t be the last. 

She had two options. The first option, the one she favored, was to tell Beth off. To scream at her for abandoning her. To say how she always does crap like this. She always wimps out. The second, the one she ended up doing, was to shrug and accept her apology. Delilah didn’t have many friends, and if she lost Beth she was worried she would loose Matt and Mark too. 

Beth hopped into the shower annoyed at not receiving an apology from Delilah as well while Delilah went over towards the polaroids that she hid under the bed. She looked through them with a smile crossing her face. The first bunch were of her and Mags dancing during the show, and the rest well...she didn’t remember taking them. 

She looked at the one of her and Duff when she tried to escape with the vodka. They were both laughing in the picture. Unknowing to Delilah a huge smile grew on her face, but quickly disappeared when she heard the shower turn off. 

Delilah dug through the photos and found one of her and Mags standing by the bar smiling. She couldn’t remember who took the photo or when it was taken, but it was exactly what she needed. 

Delilah bolted across the room and threw the rest of her pictures in her bag along with the ‘clothing’ she wore last night. 

Delilah threw on one of her lilac dresses that went well below her knees and a pair of black dress shoes. 

“I see you are ready to go too!” Beth cheered as she went to grab her purse. 

“Hey, you should give this to them and claim you took it. Today is my day off from church duties, so I won’t be stopping by today,” Delilah said handing Beth the picture and grabbing her backpack. 

Delilah not hanging out with her on her day off struck Beth as odd. Beth was tasked with helping to cook supper which mean she and Delilah would work together to make time fly by faster while listening to some movie in the background. 

“Who is this?” 

“A girl who saved me from getting hit on by some guys at the bar. She actually knew someone in the band so we hung out back stage away from the creeps. She is really sweet and actually a good friend,” Delilah opened the door and headed downstairs to leave Beth’s house. 

Beth stood frozen in her room. What did she mean by actually a good friend? Delilah was the one who wouldn’t leave when she wanted to go home! Beth wanted to scream at Delilah for the way she insinuated that a random slut that she met at a bar was a better friend than her best friend that she had known her whole life. 

————-

Delilah sorted through the photos that were taken that night. There were plenty of her and Mags, a few of the whole group talking, but her favorites were of her and Duff. She could still feel his lips on hers. She sighed as she looked at all the remaining photos. Where was she going to put these. There were like 20 of them, where could she hide them without them easily being found? That’s when it hit her. She had at least 6 bibles in her room, so she grabbed one of the ones she hadn’t touched in ages that was in the bottom of her desk drawer and put the pictures in there one by one. 

That’s when she found a number on the back of one of the pictures of her and Mags. She bit her bottom lip as she stared at the number. No one was home, so no one could eavesdrop on her phone call. She took a deep breath as she dialed the phone number. 

The phone rang a couple times, but before Delilah went to voicemail someone picked up the phone. 

“Hey... it’s Del, I was wondering if I could talk to Mags?” Delilah’s voice was barely auditable and Mags could hear her shaken breath. 

“Hey girl what’s up? I was getting worried you wouldn’t call!” Mags smiled once she head Del’s voice. She was relieved to find that her brother’s band hand scared Delilah off. 

“You’re awesome, why wouldn’t I call?” Mags smiled as she heard Del’s compliment. 

The two of them talked about how their morning was and Mag’s made sure to give Del a couple of pointers on how to easily get rid of a hangover. By now Mags was sitting on the kitchen counter in her apartment playing with the cord that attached her phone to the wall. 

“Do you have any plans for today?” Mags was practically praying that she would say no. 

“No, not really,” Mags jumped of the counter when she heard her response. She was originally going to help Beth cook all day, but she didn’t want to be anywhere near Beth right now. Mags smiled that her prayer was answered. Maybe Delilah was onto something with this whole praying and Jesus thing? 

“Do you wanna go meet up and get something to eat?” The couple of seconds it took for Delilah to answer yes, felt like hours to Mags, but once she said yes Mags was practically jumping for joy. 

“Do you want me to pick you up or”  
“Oh no, just tell me where to meet you and I can meet you there,” Delilah immediately interrupted in an almost panic. It wasn’t that she couldn’t leave her house when she wanted during the day. It was more of a she would have to explain who Mags was and how she met her which were stories that Delilah didn’t want to share with her parents at the moment, if she was ever going to at all.

So they agreed and a few hours later Delilah locked her bike on a nearby bike rack and walked into the cafe. 

Mags immediately spotted Delilah as she walked into the small cafe that they were going to meet in. It was hard to miss her with her brown curly hair flowing down below her shoulders and her flowery lilac dress that hung below her knees. Mags waved Delilah over and noticed the smile grow on her face. She wondered if Delilah was nervous about coming here. 

“Hey!” Delilah’s chipper tone filled the table as the two of them quickly began to talk about everything and nothing at the same time. Anyone in the cafe would assume that they were old best friends who hadn’t seen each other and years. It was a bit refreshing for both of them. 

“Do you have any plans after this or...”

“No I’m honestly free for the rest of the day. Today is my day off!” Delilah interrupted Mags as she spoke. She also didn’t want to go back home and deal with Beth. 

“I gotta drop something off at my brother’s first and you down for some shopping? Unless you want to wear your favorite outfit again to another one of my brother’s gigs.”

“Sounds awesome and the sooner I burn that skirt the better,” Delilah responded earning some giggles from Mags. She wondered if it was weird that she was relieved that Delilah was never going to wear the outfit front the night prior. It’s not that it didn’t look good on her, it was a more of a worry of what people would expect her to be. It was the sad world they lived in where you get judged without even opening your mouth. 

They walked the street and Delilah felt more self conscious than she had the night before.   
After some time Mags turned towards Delilah who she was now holding hands with to notice her constantly looking left and right afraid to miss a thing. 

“Here we are,” Mags pulled her through the doors and up a couple of flights of stairs.

The smell of booze and cheep perfume filled Delilah’s nose as she followed Mags into the small apartment. There appeared to be a couple of rooms, but it was small for having a bunch of guys living in it. Delilah awkwardly stood in the apartment off to the side waiting for Mags to be done with whatever she had to do with her brother. After a couple of minutes of Mags being gone, she decided to start cleaning the beer cans that were scattered across the room. After a couple of minutes of cleaning she heard, “you know you don’t have to do that?” She looked up to see the red head from the night before. 

“Yeah, but I don’t mind. Anything is better than awkwardly standing here waiting for Mags to finished whatever she is doing,” Delilah innocently smiled back at the incredibly tired red head that stood in front of her. She truly didn’t mind, anything to help out Mags. He shrugged and Delilah went back to work cleaning up all the empty bottles and trash that filled the rooms. She wondered if they occupants’ apartment was always this filthy. 

Axl returned to the main room and cleaned with the brunette. He didn’t need a damn maid, but it was too early in the afternoon to fight with her about it. 

“Del is it?”   
“Yeah, you’re apart of Steven’s band right? You’re the singer! You were amazing last night,” Delilah didn’t know why but once she opened her mouthing her nerves took over and she couldn’t stop talking. She wanted to cover her mouth with her hand. 

“Thanks,” Delilah noticed the smirk that grew on his face and she could tell that he was watching her more than he was cleaning. 

“I barely recognized you. You look very different from yesterday,” 

Delilah froze at his comment and turned around to look at him, “of course I look different. I’m actually wearing clothing today” 

She smiled when his joyful laugh filled the room, and she couldn’t help but laugh with him. He then leaned in and whispered, “but between you and me I liked the other outfit more.” Axl then stood up, left his barely filled bag of empty bottles by Delilah’s, and left the room leaving Delilah speechless with her mind racing in circles.

Across the apartment Mags sat in her brother’s room which was practically a closet, “So I dropped off this month’s rent in the tent due box. How are you guys on food? Do you need any new clothes?” 

Mags had been supporting her brother and his band for the past couple months, but she wasn’t the only one. There were a couple of other girls that she would meet, but they preferred doing other things than talking with the guys. They were still nice to her, they just never talked that much. 

“I think we are good, you know you don’t have to” before he could continue his sister immediately interrupted him, “I know, but growing up you were always there for me so now it’s my turn to be there for you. Plus I expect millions when you make it big.”

Mags left her brothers room and headed towards the kitchen to make them all some breakfast as a good job for their show last night. 

“Delilah you know you don’t have to do that right?” Mags watched as Delilah finished cleaning up all of the beer bottles. 

“Yeah, but I want to. You helped me last night, remember?” Mags smiled Delilah’s comment. She also used cleaning as a means to distract herself from what the singer said. Had she found possibly one of the few good hearted people on the strip? 

“Fine, but I’m heading to the store to grab some bread. I have something cooking in the stove for breakfast can you make sure the guys don’t eat it before it’s fully cooked in like 5 minutes?” Delilah nodded her head as she waved goodbye to Mags and headed to the kitchen. There was trash everywhere. Delilah wondered how they lived in it. 

“Hey, What smells so good,” Mags looked behind her to see a smiling Steven or popcorn as they called him. 

“Hey Popcorn, and I think it’s some egg thing. I don’t know, but it will be done,” Delilah turned around to check the one clock that was in the kitchen, “it will be potentially done in 20 minutes.” He smiled at Delilah’s use of his nickname.

“Wanna beer? It will help get rid of the hangover,” it would actually going to cause more pain later, but he didn’t have the heart to tell Delilah that. She already looked like she was done with life.

He watched as Delilah hesitated on her answer, “if you’re worried about it being weird, people usually drink mamosas in the morning which also have alcohoul.” The rest of the band was also going to be drinking whenever they decided to wake, but he decided not to tell her that. He didn’t want Delilah to think poorly of him, she seem to get along great with his sister.

Delilah nodded and he handed her a beer. That was when he was finally able to get a good look at her. Her long purple dress was a huge change from the barely there outfit from the night prior. Her hair looked the same though. Curled and twisted in all different ways, kinda like the curly fries he would get as a kid. 

“Morning!” Steven yelled across the room at Duff who only looked a little effected by the drinks the night prior. 

“What smells so good? Did your sister bake us something again?” Delilah turned and smiled at the sound of Duff’s voice. 

“Yeah it’s like a egg thing, does she usually make stuff like this?” Delilah’s voice caught Duff off guard as the brunette turned around, away from the stove. 

Delilah looked over at Duff whose hair was sticking every which way, she tried to hide her laugh, but she couldn’t and Steven quickly joined her. 

“Sorry,” Delilah tried hiding her giggle as she apologized to Duff, but it failed. 

Duff opened his beer and sat at the table watching Delilah struggle to hide her laughter. 

“Like I said last night, I will never fucking forgive you,” he teased back earning a smile from Delilah. 

As if on cue, a small timer went off causing Delilah to jump. Her stomach begged for the breakfast dish that Mags made as the smell invaded her nose. The rest of the band must have smelled the egg dish as they quickly poured into the kitchen to smell it. Delilah wondered if Mags had purposely chosen a dish that would wake everyone up. It was smart. Hungover and tired musicians were probably not the best people to deal with in the afternoon. 

“So is it done?” Delilah looked into Steven’s puppy dog eyes and nodded her head. She couldn’t find the words to tell him that they couldn’t start without Mags. 

“If it’s some then why the fuck are you putting it back in the oven?” Saying Axl was hungry was an understatement. Of course he had small meals here and there, but Mags food always made him drool. 

“I’m keeping it warm ya dingus. Mags went shopping to go get the rest of y’all’s lunch...err...breakfast,” Mags said lowering the oven temperature. She looked around the room to be met with confused expressions.

“Delilah what the fuck is a dingus?” Steven asked between his giggles. As if laughter was a disease, it spread through the room. 

“An annoying person,” Delilah sheepishly replied staring at the oven pretending to be watching it. She was too embarrassed to look him in the eyes. What if Duff thought she was an idiot or a child?

“What the hell, are you five? Trying calling me an annoying piece of shit next time, that way I can take you seriously,” Axl laughed back. His laugh wasn’t the sweet one she heard earlier, this one was vicious and cruel.

“Hey, Axl you don’t gotta be a dick,” Steven replied before he noticed that Dilalah had left the room. 

Was Delilah overreacting? Probably.   
But here she was sitting in another room by herself sulking on the couch. She couldn’t walk back into that room after leaving it. 

Who was she kidding, why did she even think coming here with Mags would be a good idea? She shouldn’t of ever called her. She already felt like an outsider and Axl wasn’t helping. 

She heard some ruckus from the kitchen, but then just shrugged it off trusting Steven to keep the food in the oven and out of their stomach’s. 

“You know she probably just came to the bar last night on a dare,” Axl said. Why? Not even Axl knew. The room went quiet again until Steven broke the silence, “I’m going to make sure she is ok.” He eyed Axl as he walked out of the room with Duff on his tail. 

“Oh great, do they both want to fuck her or something? She a church girl, anyone with eyes can see it. She thinks she is better than us. We are probably some sort of putty project,” before Axl could continue ranting Slash told him to shut up and went to his room that he shared with Duff. 

Steven’s heart sunk as he saw Delilah sitting on their sad excuse for a couch. He had lost track of how many girls they had all fucked on that couch and decided not to mention that to Delilah until another time. 

“It’s a pretty day out. It’s always nice to see the calm before the storm. This place becomes barely recognizable during the day before the street comes to life,” Steven rambled. 

Delilah flashed him a fake smile and went back to looking outside. He then tried a couple of quick jokes, but she simply faked a smile and went back to what she was doing. Steven didn’t know what else to do, and truth be told neither did Duff. 

Duff walked over towards the bin that held their suspiciously acquired records. Curious to see what he was looking for, Delilah watched him. She eventually went back to her staring out the window until she heard Duff’s voice. 

“Last night you said you didn’t know a lot about Rock and Roll, so I thought I might as well show you what your missing,” Duff said joining her on the small couch. 

Hesitantly Delilah turned around to face him. If it had been anyone else, she probably would had asked them to show her later, but it was Duff. Even though Delilah didn’t fully know it, she had a crush on the bassist. 

“So you have your God, and rock and roll has ours,” Duff showered her the album cover waiting for her reaction. She said nothing, but she didn’t look mad, so he continued.

He rambled on for a couple minutes about how great Bowie was. Telling about which songs he liked more and other miscalaneous compliments. 

“Do you have a record from that band everyone was talking about last night?” She wanted so bad to understand and listen to the music everyone was talking about. She didn’t want to be a social outcast. She wanted a place to belong.

“No, just like us they don’t have a record out, but they are playing tonight if you want to go see them,” Duff offered. 

“Really?” Delilah was shocked at his offer. 

“Well I made you a promise, didn’t I?” Then Duff flashed Delilah a smile that made her heart melt. Was she over analyzing this situation? Yes. 

“Yeah!” Delilah quickly relied. 

“Sweet, there are a bunch of us going tonight. The more the merrier.”

Delilah heart sunk. It wasn’t a date. 

“Hey, why aren’t you watching the food?” Mags was a bit peeved that Delilah would completely ignore the fact that she had to watch the food. They didn’t have enough eggs to remake the dish. 

Once she got a better look at Delilah’s face, her annoyance disappeared. What the hell did they do to Del?

“The food is fine. I have the oven keeping it slightly warm. I’m in here because Axl was..” Delilah paused sharing a look with Duff. 

“Go ahead and say it. I call him that all the time,” Mags raised an eyebrow trying to decider what Duff was talking about. 

“Axl was being a piece of shit,” Mags chucked as she saw Delilah proud to let the words come out of her mouth. 

“Lunch will be ready in 5 minutes,” Mags yelled through the small apartment as she walked into the kitchen with her grocery bags. 

“I’ve never seen someone so proud to call another person a piece of shit,” 

“Well Duff you have never met someone like me,” Delilah looked up from the David Bowie record that he had handed her, rather proud.

“Hey popcorn, what’s your favorite record in here,” Delilah asked pointing at the box of records.

“Can’t choose, but for at this very second...” for a couple of seconds he stopped talking until he landed upon the record he was looking for and handed it to Delilah. 

She looked at the band and quickly turned over the album to see the names of the songs. 

“Thoughts?”

“That guy looks cooler with the lightening bolt on his face,” Delilah picked up David Bowie’s album and pointed to his makeup earning a chuckle. 

That’s when it clicked, something that should have clicked a while ago when he mentioned the promise. If he remembered the promise then he probably remembered their make out session. 

“Earth to Del, are you OK?” 

“Yeah, of course why wouldn’t I be?” Delilah answered in a matter of fact tone. It wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t the truth. 

“Food is ready!” When Delilah heard Mag’s voice she stood up, grabbed Duff’s beer, and headed towards the kitchen. She took a swig, and forced herself to swallow the nasty drink. 

Duff smirked as he watched her walk away with his drink. If she wanted to play this game then game on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading. More updates coming soon!!


	5. Chapter 5: The Advice I Wish I Got

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mags thinks she knows best about what is good for Delilah.

Chapter 5?

“What’s up Mags? I thought you and Del went shopping,” Steven stared at his younger sister who leaned against the doorframe. Something was up.

“We gotta talk.” Her face was stern. It had been a while since his sister was like this. 

“About what..” He dragged the words out as his sister sat down on the floor next to his bed. He adjusted himself on the mattress he bought off of the neighbor downstairs and waited for his sister to talk. He knew she was mad, but beyond that he couldn’t tell what was on her mind. Mags was always and will always be hard to read.

“Del isn’t a groupie for YOUR band to fuck around with for a couple weeks and then toss aside like yesterday’s trash,” Mag’s harsh whispers filled the room as she spoke. She reminded herself to keep her voice low. The loft was small with paper thin walls. 

“WHOAH WHOAH,” Steven placed his hands on Mag’s shoulders trying to calm her down.

“Sorry its just...” Mags began to tear up as she jumped on her brother to hug him. For the second time today, he had no idea how to react. 

“It’s okay Mags, just breathe,” He whispered into her ear as he patter her back. 

“I just really like her okay? I know that sounds crazy because I barely know her, but I really like her. We had breakfast this morning at a cafe and it just felt so easy to talk to her. For the first time since Tif, I felt like I had a real friend. I felt like I could tell her anything!” Steven watched a smile grow across Mag’s face as she spoke about Del. To say that Tiff and Mags left on not so good terms was an understatement.

“That’s sounds amazing Mags,” He whispered back.

“I guess what I am trying to say is that I worry about her. She is new to the strip and I don’t want her to get hurt,” Mags smiled at her older brother who appeared to be hanging onto every word that came out of her mouth. The tears were still in her eyes, but she wiped them away to the best of her ability.

“I will try my best. When we go out drinking tonight, I can watch her too. I will cock block Duff and keep Axl away from her,” Mags stood up from her brother’s lap and sat back down on the floor. She shook her head and leaned back against the wall.

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Silence filled the air for a couple seconds until Mags let out a small laugh. 

“What?” Steven asked intrigued as to what his sister was laughing at.

“You were right, I am such a MOM,” Mags erupted in laughter as the words left her mouth.

“In all seriousness though, that’s a good thing. How about this, you be the Mom and I’ll be the Dad?” Steven joked leaning back into the wall, mimicking his sister’s posture. 

“I can see you as like one of those hip cool dads who buys their kids rock music and teaches them how to play guitar.” 

“Hell yeah! I can picture it now!” Steven cheered as he threw his arms in the air. 

“Just don’t get any chicks pregnant yet. You already have four kids in the other room,” Mags shook her head and bid farewell to her brother as she walked back to the couch room. Mags silently prayed that her brother wouldn’t get a chick pregnant. Steven could barely care for itself, let alone a kid.

Steven sighed once his sister left his room. He couldn’t believed that he just agreed to cock blocking Duff all night long. Duff and Del looked cute together, and he had noticed a certain bassist have a little more hop in his step since Del came around. Ever since Mags was a little girl, she wasn’t a huge fan of sharing, but Del wasn’t a toy or booze. Del was Del.

Music filled the loft as Duff was teaching her what culture, as he called it, truly was. The entire band rolled their eyes as Duff continued to talk on and on about rock music. They were only interrupted by Axl, Slash and Izzy letting out muffled laughs as they escaped to the kitchen. 

“God they should get a damn room,” Izzy groaned as he grabbed another beer. It was obvious that Duff was flirting with her, but he was horribly failing. The three of them almost, ALMOST, felt bad for their bassist as his pickup lines were either ignored or met with a confused look.

“Do you think she knows that he is flirting with her? I haven’t seen something this bad since the time Steven tried to pick up that stripper with the pink/yellow bra,” Slash replied sitting on the table earning a couple of laughs. 

“She’s a church girl, she probably doesn’t understand that he keeps hinting at sexual shit,” Axl quickly added joining Slash at the table. 

“She’s gotta be a virgin right?” Slash’s comment was met with Izzy and Axl nodding in agreement. 

“Probably never been kissed,” Izzy added taking another swig of his beer. He nearly spat out his beer at the expression that flashed across Axl’s face.

“When and how the fuck did you kiss her last night without Mags noticing?” Izzy asked in a hush tone. If Mags had found out that Axl had made out with Del, then there would have been both a bitch fest and a lack of egg pie for breakfast.

“Wasn’t me,” Axl’s cocky grinned grew as he tried to muffle his laugh.

“That sly bastard, I knew Duff wasn’t showing her the stage or whatever bull shit excuse he came up with,” Slash knew something was up when the two of them left the room last night. 

“Do you think Popcorn and Mags believe his bullshit lie?” Izzy knew Steven could be a tad of an optimist at time and chose to be naive about certain things, but he saw how he looked at Del.

“The better question is if Mags has cornered Popcorn and told him to cock block Duff,” Slash added.

“Weird how a couple of minutes ago the couch room had five people in it instead of seven. Interesting how Mags and Steven weren’t there for what was it five songs of Duff flirting with Del,” Axl added taking another swig from his beer as Izzy and Slash joined him in smirking. 

The moment Duff entered the kitchen to grab another beer for him and Del, Axl opened his mouth. 

“Can you fuck her already?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Axl rolled his eyes at Duff’s defensive tone. 

“Dude, I’m going to be honest with you. It is painful to watch you crash and burn out there,” Izzy said just loud enough for Duff and the other guys to hear. 

“Shut up”

“Just get a room already,” Slash added receiving a glare from Duff.   
“Thanks to you guys I actually had one for a couple of minutes before Mags showed up just now,” Duff almost let out a groan earlier when Mags came walking into the room. He hated the lack of privacy of the apartment more than he hated Mags. 

“Just a heads up, Mags cornered Popcorn in his room earlier when we were all in the couch room. They probably just finished talking. I give Steven like two hours before he gives all of us a talk on how Del is off limits or some bullshit like that,” Axl warned his bandmate and watched as a frown form on his face.

“He probably got the talk too,” Izzy added earning a laugh from the guys. They all saw the way he was watching Del.

“Last person to get the talk chooses where we go drinking tomorrow night?” Slash asked deciding to make a game out of the situation. 

“Deal,” the all responded in unison.

Steven walked by the kitchen as he headed back to his closet. He debated on confronting all of the guys at once, but he didn’t like the odds of four versus one. 

Mags sat on the couch listening to whatever record Duff had put on before he left the room.

“Are you enjoying the music?” Mag’s question was immediately met with a smiling and nodding Del. This was definitely better than the day she originally had planned.

“Do you got a sec to talk about something?” Delilah was thrown off by Mag’s concerned tone. Was everything alright?

“Yeah is everything okay?” Delilah leaned forward and held Mag’s hands as she joined her on the couch.

“Yeah, of course!” Delilah pretended to believe Mag’s lie. It was obvious that whatever caused the tears was no concern of hers.

“Can you promise me something?” Mags sheepishly asked the girl in front of her. Delilah’s eyes never left Mag’s as she spoke.

“Oh yes, of course. Anything,” Delilah eagerly replied as she squeezed Mag’s hands.

Mags took a deep breath and sighed as she adverted her gaze from Delilah’s. Delilah wasn’t going to like what she was about to say. She hoped that Delilah wasn’t going to hate her for what she was about to say. She convinced herself that Delilah needed to hear what she was about to tell her. 

“I don’t know how to say this, but please let me finish my entire thought before you interrupt me or say anything,” Mags whispered as she spoke earning a slow, cautious nod from Delilah. 

“Don’t get me wrong, the Strip is an amazing place. The strip has given me some of the best memories I will ever have, but...ahh how do I say this..you are a beautiful girl and some people will take advantage of that,” Mags paused and looked at the very confused expression on Delilah’s face, but like Delilah promised she remained silent and waited for Mags to finish her thought.

“Okay let me start over,” Mags said earning a giggle from Delilah. God why was this so hard?

“I guess what I am trying to say is wait until you know who you are before you get into a relationship or do anything you will regret. It’s a different world here. I promise you that I am not saying this, poorly saying if I may add, out of spite or hatred or jealousy. I wish someone told me to wait to define myself before someone else decided to define me,” Mags looked up to see a confused look still on Delilah’s face. 

After a few moment’s of silence Delilah replied, “Thank you for the advice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading!


	6. A Night Under the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delilah lies and enjoys a night.

The lie came of Delilah’s tongue like she had rehearsed it a hundred times. 

Delilah held the piece of paper with the lie written across it. They stood in front of a pay phone that was located a couple blocks down, so that they couldn’t be traced back to the apartment. 

Delailah remained frozen in front of the payphone until Mags spoke, “You will be fine. Just read the lie right off of the paper.” 

At first Mags wanted to roll her eyes and call Delilah a wimp or goodie two shoes, but she quickly realized that she couldn’t. Delilah was practically shaking as she picked up the phone and dialed her parent’s number. Mags placed her hand on Delilah’s back to hopefully calm her shaking.

“Sanderson household, Gabe speaking,” Delilah slimed eternally thankful that one of her older brothers had answered the phone instead of her mother.

“Hey Gabe its Delilah,”  
“Hey Delilah, How’s baking going? Why are you calling? Do you need someone to go pick up some extra food or something?” 

In fear that Gabe would continue to ramble, a family trait that they all wished they didn’t inherit from their mother, Delilah interrupted him, “No I didn’t end up baking with Beth today. I am actually helping out at a food kitchen that I stumbled upon while on a morning walk. Someone was handing out fliers and I offered to help out. That is actually why I called, can I talk to mother or father? I am assuming father is at Church so is mother there.” 

Delilah hadn’t noticed Mags scrunching her face whenever Delilah said mother or father. It sounded odd the way Delilah said it, in Mags opinion. 

“Good afternoon Delilah,” Delilah could feel her heart begin to freak out as she heard her mother’s voice. The last time her heart felt like this was last night...with Duff. A stupid smile crossed Delilaha’s face as she thought of their moment.

“Good afternoon mother. I would like permission to volunteer at a food kitchen. They really need my help, and I feel like God lead me to this woman who was handing out the fliers asking for help,” Delilah read the lie right off of the note that she held. 

“That sounds wonderful Delilah. When will you be coming home?” Mags let out a sigh at Delilah’s mother’s reply. 

“So that’s the thing. They need my help until 3 AM making the bread, so they offered for me to stay the night in the church,” this was the part that Delilah was worried about. This was the part where she was worried that her mother would ask her to bring Gabe or Mark, or tell her she couldn’t go all together. 

“How kind of you. What’s the address? I could send Beth and the rest of your friends over to help out.”

“No mother, that wont be neccisary. I feel like this is a journey that God wants me to go on by myself. Mother, I don’t know the best way to say this, but I feel like this is the perfect opportunity for me. I want to completely focus on giving with no distraction.”

“That is complexity understandable honey. We all need to find ourselves and go on our own spiritual journeys. All I ask is for you to be safe, and be back ontime tomorrow afternoon to help prepare dinner,” her mother responded before saying that she loved her and looked forward to seeing her tomorrow.

“I can’t believe that worked!” Mags cheered as she wrapped her arm around Delilah’s shoulder.

The girls entered the apartment which was currently filled with the guys getting ready. It was absolute chaos. 

“This is normal, the yelling?” Delilah asked over the music the guys were playing to get ready. 

“Yeah, usually they’re more drunk though,” Mags said before throwing Delilah the shirt and pants she picked out earlier. 

“Go find a closet or something to change in. The guys will probably be using the bathroom to get ready. I gotta run to my brother’s truck to grab some shoes for us,” Mags said before heading out the door. 

“I’d offer you my room, but Axl is getting ready,” Izzy startled Delilah as he spoke. 

“You can change behind the couch though if you help me scotch it forward just enough,” Delilah smiled at Izzy’s words and helped him move the couch forward just enough for her to hide behind it and change. 

Delilah squirmed on the ground as she tried to get the pants Mags had picked out for her on. It was a struggle as she had never changed into clothing while hiding behind a nasty couch while also lying on the ground. 

“Why the fuck did ya move the couch Izzy?” Delialah could recognize Axl’s voice anywhere. 

“Del is changing,” Izzy simply replied while sitting on the couch where Axl quickly joined him. 

“How’s it going back there Del?” Delilah already rolled her eyes at Axl’s question. She half expected him to look.

“Great, thanks for asking,” she sarcastically responded as she got her shirt over her head. 

“Izzy, I’ve always like this couch,” There was something about Axl’s tone that Delilah didn’t like. 

“Why? It’s a piece of shit.”

“But it’s great for fucking chicks on. Something about the busted springs or worn down fabric I guess,” before Axl could continue talking Delilah shot up behind the couch. 

“Are you serious?” Axl let out a laugh as Delilah quickly made her way across the room 

She bolted across the room earning laughs from Izzy and Axl. 

“Did you finally tell her about the couch?” Mags walked into the room fully changed. 

“You knew?” Delilah screamed earning a couple of laughs. By now the whole band was watching the scene unfold. 

“Yeah, sorry Del. I was gonna tell ya later. I just didn’t know the right way to tell you that half of this apartment has had sex with a girl on the couch,” Delilah decided to join Mags in laughing in hopes to defuse the situation. She didn’t want to make that big of a deal about it. Plus it wasn’t like she was naked on the couch. It still was disgusting and she made a note to remember to take a shower later

Del then quickly followed Mags into the kitchen, “you look good.” Delilah smiled at Mags words as she looked down at her Bowie shirt and ripped jean pants Mags helped her find. 

“You too,” Delilah replied as she watched Mags apply some makeup. 

“Oh hey, I got these for you. You can probably sneak into the bathroom before one of the guys take it again,” Mags handed her the black eyeliner and foundation with a smile. Delilah thanked her for the gifts and headed towards the bathroom. 

Once inside she tried to ignore the fact that the eyeliner and foundation looked brand new which meant that Mags probably stole it for her. It was a nice gesture, but the theft part made Delilah feel dirty, but not as dirty as the couch.

“You need any help?” Delilah jumped around Duff’s voice. She must have figured that he had been watching her hold the eyeliner unknowing of what to do with it. 

“Honesty yeah. Foundation is pretty straight forward, but eyeliner. Like I get it the eyeliner is to line the eyes hence the name , but how do you apply it properly. Are you supposed to hold it a certain way or are you supposed to do the top or the bottom of the eye first?” Delilah’s rambling was quickly interrupted by Duff’s laughter which filled the bathroom. 

“Want me to apply it for you,” he pointed towards his eyes which were neatly outlined in eyeliner. 

Delilah nodded earning a smile from Duff.   
He let out a light chuckle   
“What’s so funny? Is my foundation messed up?” Delilah quickly turned around to check for imperfections.

“No, no you look amazing. I was laughing at the fact that you’re going to have to sit on the sink, so I don’t have to bend over...a lot,” Duff insisted as he turned her around. He hadn’t noticed how much shorter she was than him until now.

Smooth Duff real smooth. He wanted to kick himself as the words left his mouth. 

Delilah prayed that Duff couldn’t see her blush as he complimented her. She hoped the foundation covered most of it. Before she knew it she was sitting on the sink and Duff was gently applying the eyeliner. Every once and a while, his calloused fingers would dance across her skin causing her heart to flutter. 

“Why are you so good at this? I can barely draw a line without messing it up,” Delilah moaned as Duff moved onto the other eye. 

“Well Dely, I used to be in a punk band before guns. Now hold still,” Delilah barely heard the words he said as he currently had both of his hands rested on her thighs as he spoke. She hope he couldn’t feel her forever increasing heartbeat. 

“I was pretty still,” Delilah interjected.   
“Dely, you were pretty, but you were not anywhere near still. You were almost as bouncy or twitchy as my drummer,” Duff teased back. Delilah could barely stay still as he massaged his thumbs into her inner thighs as he spoke. 

To say she was lost for wards was an understatement. 

“I like the shirt by the way,” Duff added as he worked on her left eye. 

“Thanks, this guy was telling me about this Bowie guy and we listened to an album or two, and I really liked it,” Delilah commented as she caught a smirk form on his face. 

“Oh, this guy sounds pretty cool,” Duff joked back as he finished her other eye. 

“Nah, not really. He plays bass, so talk about a loser,” Delilah teased before leaving the bathroom. 

In no time all of them, minus Izzy, were on their way to the bar. Delilah asked Izzy why he couldn’t come, but all he said was that he was preoccupied and Mags immediately made Delilah drop the conversation. 

“Are we meeting anyone there?” Duff asked the group to hopefully escape his conversation with Steven. Steven has been relentless at keeping Duff occupied with pointless conversation where they talked about pure nonsense. 

“Nah, the girls are working tonight,” Axl sadly replied. 

Delilah’s heart sank as she heard Axl’s answer. Other girls? To her, he doubts were confirmed right then and there. She obviously wasn’t good enough for Duff. 

Duff watched as Delilah hunched her shoulders over. 

He internally cussed himself off and squeezed his way through their small group to stand next to her. 

“Have you ever had a good beer before or just the stuff that tastes like piss,” Duff asked attempting damage control. 

“Nah just piss,” Delilah smiled back at the blonde. 

“Well this bar we are going to has one of my favorite beers, I’ll have to get you one,” Duff felt a sigh of relief fill his body as Delilah smiled and nodded back to him. 

Time quickly flew by when they got to the bar. Duff bought Delilah a beer, with the money she assumed was from their gig the previous night, and it actually didn’t taste half bad. 

Duff quickly realized that Axl’s warning was real when Steven wouldn’t leave his side when they walked to the bar. At first, Popcorn talked to Duff about actual band things, but the conversation turned into what was on Steven’s mind that very second. Duff’s frustration with Steven continued to grow as he insisted on sitting next to Delilah in the booth, making it almost impossible to talk to her. Steven’s antics weren’t by any means subtle, but they were effective. 

Duff watched as Delilah danced in her seat to the music that was playing. When she shook her head, her curls flew from side to side. 

“The song is by the Clash. The band playing is doing a pretty good cover,” Duff felt like he had to yell over Steven and Axl as he attempted to talk to Delilah. 

A very drunk Mags glared at him from across the table, but he could barely hear what she was saying, nor did he care. 

Delilah sent a smile towards Duff, but remained silent as Axl and Slash talked amongst themselves. She felt like she was surrounded by them like she was on an island or something. With Axl to her left, and Slash to her right, Steven across from her and Mags next to him, there was no way to talk to Duff. 

Delilah turned towards Axl and shot him a confused look. Did she hear him say something? 

“Slash is grabbing another round. Need more?” Axl was only inches from Delilah’s ear when he spoke sending shivers down her spine.

“Nah, I’m still working on this one,” Delilah put on a fake smile as she answered him. She looked over towards Duff who looked like he wanted to be anywhere, but sitting next to Mags and Steven.

“Looks like Duff is having a lot of fun,” Axl pointed towards Duff who looked over towards Delilah and mouthed something she didn’t understand. 

She turned towards Axl who was laughing at Duff’s comment. Delilah watched Axl mouth something back. From what Delilah could dicifer, he mouthed something along the lines of sucks to suck.

Slash came back to their table with three more beers and handed them to Delilah and Axl. 

“Wanna dance?” Duff quickly shot his head in Mag’s and Delilah direction only to be relieved when the guy who owned the voice asked Mags to dance, not Delilah. 

“You should sit next to him,”  
Delilah looked over at Axl and shot him a confused look.   
“Why?”

“In a couple of seconds Mags will be on the dance floor, and Steven has been eyeing the girl at the bar all night. You two will finally get some alone time,” Axl replied before taking another sip of his beer.

“Why are you being nice, I pegged you as more of the annoying piece of shit guy in the band,” Axl laughed at Delilah’s comment.

Just as Axl had predicted Mags was on dance floor, and Steven headed towards the bar. 

“You better be careful or with a mouth like that, you’re going to hell,” Axl replied back.

Delilah faked a gasp and placed her hand on her chest pretending to be offended. “But I’m just a good Catholic girl, I could never go to hell,” Delilah said before heading over towards Duff.

Axl remained frozen for a couple of seconds trying to process what she had said. He didn’t know why his brain was stuck on the way she said ‘good girl’, but he liked it.

“Well that was weird,” Slash replied before taking another sip. Axl was almost startled by the guitarist’s words.   
Weird.  
Weird was a good word for it.

“Is this seat taken,” Duff smiled as Delilah came over. About time. 

“Yeah, by you,” she smiled as Duff’s words. 

“So, overall thoughts on the beer?” Duff noticed the beer that was in her hand. 

“Really good, but the music is even better!” Delilah cheered back as she threw her arms up in the air. 

“I’m glad you like it!” Delilah’s heart practically melted when he smiled. 

“Want another?” Duff stood up to go back to the bar, but immediately noticed a change in Delilah. That’s when it clicked. This was probably the second bar she had ever been to, maybe she needed a break. 

“Or follow me. The night is still young,” Duff offered his hand. Delilah looked over at Mags who was happily dancing with the guy who asked her earlier. Why not? What’s the worst that could happen? 

She quickly took his hand and followed him out of the bar walking past Steven who was talking to some girl, Duff was relieved for the first time that Steven was distracted. 

The two of them then headed out of the bar into the crowed streets of Sunset Strip. Delilah felt Duff’s arm wrap around her waist as they walked toe and toe. She couldn’t remember the last time she saw this many people in the streets. 

“Where are we going?”   
Duff simple retuned a smile and pulled her in closer to him.

“I was thinking Beijing,” Duff could barely hold in his laugh as he heard a groan escape Delilah.

“How do you feel like Iceland?” He asked receiving another groan from Delilah.

“Too cold,” she moaned. 

In not time the two of them arrived outside his apartment complex and Delilah followed him up the stairs.

“There is always Seattle,” He said as he opened the door reveling his cramped apartment. Once again he received another groan from Delilah as plopped down on the floor making sure to keep her distance from the disgusting couch. 

“Isn’t Seattle known for terrible weather? Cold, windy, rainy? Honestly the only thing that entire city has going for it is their football,” Duff smiled as he walked towards the kitchen. 

“You like football? I didn’t peg you as the sport type?” Duff yelled from the kitchen in the apartment. 

He dug through the fridge and pulled out some vodka.

“All my brothers played,” Delilah replied when he came back into the room. Brothers? 

Delilah watched as Duff opened the door and motioned for her to leave the room. 

“Where are we going now?” Dilalah asked as she was leaving the apartment. 

“Wait no, don’t fucking answer that,” Delilah groaned as she followed him upstairs. 

“Watch your fucking language Dely, and well since you asked,” before Duff could finish listing off cities Delilah interrupted him with a load groan. Duff’s laughter filled the stairway as they climbed up to the roof. 

The two of them sat on the roof that overlooked the strip and talked quickly jumping from one topic to the next.

“Noo you didn’t,” Delilah gasped as Duff told her about the time he died his hair blue. 

“Yeah, thought it was very punk,” Duff shook his head as he took another sip of the vodka and passed it to Delilah. 

“I think you could pull it off, blue hair,” Delilah tried to hide her laughter.

“Wow you are a terrible liar, you couldn’t even hide your cute giggle,” Duff teased as he pulled Delilah onto his lap. She took another small sip of the vodka and her face scrunched at the burn as it did every time. 

Duff’s laughter filled the air, joining Delilah’s. 

The strip might have been loud and filled with music filling the air, but neither Duff nor Delilah could hear that. To them it was as if they were on their own island. An island where Delilah didn’t have to leave tomorrow. An island where they never had to worry about where their next meal came from. An island that was all theirs. 

“Dely, I would appreciate it if you would kiss me right now,” Duff purred into Delilah’s ears right before they kissed under the stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading.   
> More updates coming soon.


	7. Just Another Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delilah wakes up to something unexpected.

Chapter 7 

The sun shined through Delilah’s eyelids. She then turned away front the light and burried her head into a pillow. No, this was hard, this wasn’t a soft pillow. 

She opened her eyes to see Duff fast asleep with his arms wrapped around her. Panic filled her as she looked around the room to see her clothing scattered across the floor. 

“Duff, Duff,” she shook him awake in pure horror of what could have happened. 

They didn’t just have sex last night. She didn’t lose her virginity, she couldn’t have. She was smart, she was careful. She didn’t have too much to drink last night, right? She thought over and over again like a broken record. 

“What Delly?” Duff fluttered his eyelids open to see a startled Delilah. That’s when he took in their surrounding. Their clothing was spread everywhere and the two of them wore only in their underwear. She must have not remembered the events of last night. Looking around the room anyone would have assumed they just had sex.

“Breathe it’s okay. Breathe, we didn’t have sex,” Duff cupped Delilah’s face as he spoke in attempt to calm her down. He could feel her heartbeat racing. 

“How do you know,” Fear, fear was all Duff saw in Delilah’s eyes as she whispered back to him. She could feel the tears forming in her eyes, she didn’t know how much longer she could hold them back. 

What if she was pregnant?  
What would she do with the baby?  
Her family would disown her.   
Her church would disown her.   
Duff was broke and she wasn’t employed, how would they survive?   
Would she have to raise the baby here in this disgusting apartment?  
What would Mags think?  
Would Mags even help?  
Would Duff even help? He could just throw her to the street and tell her to get lost. 

“You said no, so we didn’t do it,” Duff hoped his words would help calm her, but he was unsuccessful. Her breathing quickened with every breath she took. He worried that if she continued like this, she would have a heart attack. 

“Delly,” her panicked eyes raced across the room in search of reasons to believe him. 

“Delly,” this time she looked at him. Her large eyes filled with with the same fear.

“We are also both wearing underwear and Slash is sleeping in his bed,” Duff added pointing towards his passed out roommate. That’s the first time Delilah had noticed the curl haired guitarist sleeping on the paper thin mattress only a couple of feet away from them.

“Pillows aren’t thrown across the room, the curtains are open, do you want me to keep going Delly?” Duff’s smooth tone calmed Delilah down without a problem as he gave her a quick squeeze and let go of her. He never wanted to see her like that again. 

He wanted to add that she would remember having sex with him, but now wasn’t the time or place for that. He figured that’s something that Axl would say, and right now the farther he was from saying something Axl would say the better. 

“Okay,” Duff looked over towards her as she faked a smile at him. She believed him, but that was her only choice. 

This was when Duff got a good look at Delilah. Her makeup was smudged, her hair was out of control, and she used his only blanket to cover her chest. She looked beautiful, stunning, gorgeous, sexy, adorable, and hot. He wished he had a camera to capture how stunning she truly was. It’s true he had been to strip clubs and seen countless groupies, but, as corny as it sounds, there was something about Delilah. At that moment he knew he was fucked. 

Delilah began to mindlessly trace shapes around Duff’s chest as they remained in his bed, neither one wanting to move. 

“So what happened last night?” Delilah’s voice squeaked causing Duff to looked down at her. 

“Well what’s the last thing you remember?” He asked brushing some of Delilah’s hair behind her ear. 

“We were on the rooftop and we kissed,” She could feel the blush growing as she spoke of their kiss. Duff smiled as he saw her blush, it was cute. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in closer. 

“Well you asked why the music was so loud and then I offered to dance with you which you agreed. You then told me about how you used to be a ballerina,” Duff snickered at Delilah’s shocked face. 

“I can’t believe I told you that,” To say she was embarrassed was an understatement. He also knew why she had to stop, but he didn’t want to bring up old wounds. 

“You then promised to teach me ballet. I can’t wait to use some of the new moves you’re gonna teach me on stage,” he teased back.

“Ohh GOD,” Duff laughed as he watched Delilah hide herself under his blanket. 

“What’s all the noise about?” Duff looked over to a very tired Slash. His eyes shot open when he saw Duff and Delilah sharing a bed. 

“If you’re gonna,” Duff had known Slash for sometime now, but anyone with a brain cell knew that he was going to say something along the lines of ‘if you’re gonna have sex at least warn your band mate so he can get out of the damn room’. All it took was a look from Duff and Slash shut up. Delilah watched him get up and mumble something along the lines of, “I’m too sober for this shit” before leaving the room. 

“Someone needs some morning coffee,” Delilah mumbled to herself as she got out of Duff’s bed, and began collecting her clothing that was scattered around the room. 

“I’d think he rather some nighttrain,” Duff chucked to himself and looked over to see a confused Delilah. 

“It’s cheep booze,” Duff added dismissing his joke. 

Delilah quickly found her dress from yesterday morning, and threw in on. She then threw her hair up in a bun before she walked into the kitchen expecting to see Mags. 

“Have you seen Mags,” Delilah turned towards Axl who was smoking something as he sat on the countertop. 

“Sorry, Marry I haven’t,” Axl took another drag of his cigaret.   
“Mary?” Delilah quickly turned on her feet at she heard Axl’s new name for her.  
“Yeah...haven’t you ever read to Bible?” Delilah wanted to smack his smirk off of his face.   
“There is more than one Mary in the Bible,” Delilah shot back in a very I’ll have you know attitude. 

“How about the Virgin one?” Axl’s laughter filled the room.   
Delilah used to pride herself on being able to keep her emotions repressed, but Axl she couldn’t. Somehow Axl knew how to get her pissed.

As almost if it was on cue, Mags opened the front door. She looked panicked to say the least.

Her makeup was a mess.   
Her hair was sticking every which way,  
She wasn’t even wearing any shoes. 

“Fun night?” Axl turned towards Mags as she spoke. 

“It’s took fucking early to be dealing with your bullshit,” Mags said opening the fridge and pulled some food out. Axl Rose was the last person she wanted to speak to at the moment. 

Delilah smiled at Mag’s comment earning a glare from Axl. 

“Can you leave the room so Del and I can talk one on one,” Every word that came out of Mags mouth made her sound desperate. Axl mumbled something before he walked off. 

“You okay?” Delilah took in Mags appearance as she sat down at the table and offered for Delilah to take the seat next to her.

“I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have left you!” Mags squeezed Delilah’s hand as she talked. 

“No worries Mags. I had a great time last night. The guys made sure I was okay,” Delilah responded as she hugged Mags. 

“Duff even offered her his bed as he slept on the floor,” Axl walked in grabbing something from the fridge before he left the room again. 

Delilah wondered why he was covering for her. What was he going to gain from this. Why was he being NICE. Not even five minutes ago he was calling her out on her virginity and mocking her about it. 

“Duff, thanks! She was supposed to come home and sleep on my couch, but I kinda got distracted,” Mags shrugged it off as she went on towards cooking breakfast. Delilah felt her heart speed up as she turned to see Duff walk into the room. 

“Any time,” Duff’s reply earned a smirk from Axl.   
Delilah wanted to scream at Axl for his lack of discrepancy about her and Duff sharing a bed, but she couldn’t, not here.   
Duff stood behind Delilah his arm currently wrapped around Delilah’s waist. Lucky for him it was hidden behind the table from Mags. 

“So when do you have to get going,” Mags asked as she began to cook.

“Right now actually...” Delilah leaned against the table as she replied. 

Did she want to leave? Hell no.  
Did she have to? Yes. 

“If you an escape tonight, you should stop by my place. If you’re after 8:30 don’t come cause we will be off at some rich chick’s house. She saw the guys performing a few weeks back, and wanted them to perform live at one of her parties,” Delilah nodded at Megs invite. She then said goodbye to everyone who was awake and headed to church on her bike. 

Time flew by as she biked off towards the church. As she stood in front of the church’s large wooden doors, she froze before entering. 

She quickly spotted her family as she walked down the isle in her sundress. The mass felt as if it would never end. Delilah could barely focus on the priest’s words as she kept thinking of Duff and last night. 

She remembered how the stars dance in the midnight sky.   
She remembered how she felt whenever he touched her.   
His words echoed in her head, ‘Delly, I would really appreciate for you to kiss me right now’ causing her heart to flutter.   
She wished she could be with him right now, but she had to conceal a small chuckle as she tried to imagine Duff dressed for church. She prayed that they would be together soon. 

“Focus,” Delilah was brought back to reality as he mother slapped her wrist. She only remained in reality for a couple of moments before she flew right back into her day dreaming. 

To Delilah’s relief mass was quickly over, and she followed her older brother Gabe towards the basement to help cook for lunch.

“So how was volunteering?” Gabe leaned back against the fridge as his sister mixed the salad. 

“Good, how was home?” Delilah questioned putting the completed salad to the side. 

“She brought it up again,” Delilah immediately let out a groan at her brothers words earning a laugh from him. 

“It’s inevitable. I give it two hours before she mentions you and Mark she be dating. She told me that I should set you two up or something. I don’t get how she doesn’t see that you two are just friends,” Gabe added. 

Delilah’s relationship status had been an elephant in to room for a few months now. Mark’s and Delilah’s mother’s had been close for years now, so it was only a matter of time until their parents attempted to get them dating. They were growing tired of waiting, and with Gabe’s wedding only a year away, she was next.

“Then after a couple of months she will be asking for when the wedding bells will be ringing. What is this the 1800s? Can’t I live,” Delilah insisted. 

“Here comes the bride,” before Gabe could continue singing Delilah opened the ranch and squirted some all over him. 

“WHY!” Delilah’s laughter filled the room as her brother began to clean off the ranch from his face. 

“Promise me you’ll never try to make it as a singer on the strip,” Delilah chirped back. He was definitely no Axl Rose when it came to singing. 

“Oh come on, who do you think I am? John?” This time Gabe’s laughter was the only thing to fill the room. Delilah remained a statue as she watched her brother laugh. 

Delilah turned towards the pantry and went to distract herself with sending herself on a hunt for beans. 

(Flashback)  
About 2 years ago, Delilah’s oldest brother got in a fight with her father. Over what? She’ll never know, but she knew it was bad. She knew that they were screaming. She heard furniture break. 

A week passed and one night she awoke to ricks being thrown at her window. She thanked God that it was Mark, and quickly let him into his room. 

“Where have you been? It’s been a week!” Delilah wanted to scream at her eldest brother, but she dared not raise her voice. 

“The strip, I just needed to get out,” John’s reply was sharp, almost agitated. 

“Are you back for good?” John’s heart broken as he explained to his little sister on how he had to leave the family. Once again, Delilah wanted to scream when he wouldn’t give more details.

“At least take me with you,” Delilah begged was her brother walked towards the window. 

“I can’t Delly, the strip is a dangerous place for someone like you. Truth be told I have been sneaking out for months,” John then went into more detail on how he snuck out every night. How predictable their parents’ nightly routine was. He made it sound easy, and Delilah planned on testing the ease tonight. She wasn’t going to miss the party Mag’s invited her to. She had found something that made her feel alive, and she wasn’t going to let go of it. No matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading!!!


	8. A List

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A world gets changed forever

Chapter 8: 

Her parents were like clockwork, exactly as her oldest brother had told her many years ago. 

While her parents were predictable, Mark was not. He was out on a walk when he noticed a figure leaving Delilah's window. He let a smile escape him and slowly walked over towards her house, careful to not draw attention to himself. She must have gotten a similar talk from her mom as well. 

He stopped dead in his tracks as she slowly became more visible to him and less of a creature in the shadows. Her hair danced around her as a small gust shot her way. He wondered if she had done her hair and came to see him. She wanted to talk about the news. 

After a few more steps, his heart sank. She wasn't heading anywhere near his house. Was she running away? 

No.

He watch as she waited by the bus stop with only a small purse. No, she wasn't running away, but she was going somewhere. That's when it clicked. That's when he thought he figured it out. Delilah was going to see her eldest brother John. He figured she must have ran into him a few nights prior when she went into the bar for a dare. 

He was wrong, but he couldn't think of any other reason for her to go back. The strip was filled with some of the most vile people, and Delilah would never associate herself with people like that, he told himself. 

"Hey, Delilah," Delilah let out a groan of frustration once she heard Mark's voice. 

Fuck.  
She took a quick breath and put on a fake smile. 

"Hey Mark," Delilah said walking towards him. 

"Where are you going?" Delilah froze at Mark's demanding tone. 

"I've gone out for a walk," Delilah lied as she watched her bus leave without her on it. 

"That's a bold face lie," He grabbed onto her arm as Delilah tried to walk away.

"Let go of me, plus I could ask you the same question," Delilah sternly replied attempting to yank her arm away from Mark. 

"I actually came looking for you. Low and behold I see you sneaking around at this hour. Honestly, any idiot would know you're looking for your brother John. He's dead Delilah. He's dead to us remember? I don't care if you spoke or saw him the night you went to the bar with Beth on the strip. He made a choice," Mark's grip tightened around Delilah's arm as he spoke. 

How dare he. How dare he talk about John like that. How dare he act like he knows all of w  
hat happened. He just believed the lies that were fed to him. 

"Stop, that hurts!" Delilah cried as his grip continued to tighten. She looked into his eyes and saw something she could never describe. There was something dark in his eyes. Something she had never seen before. 

"Please," Delilah cries with tears now flowing down his face. 

After a few second he obliged, but still held her arm in attempt to escape. 

"Are you free tomorrow?" Delilah was taken aback by his question. 

"What?" Mark laughed at her confusion and slithered his hands into Delilah's.

"I am asking you on a dare Delilah," Mark's laugh grew louder. 

"No," his laughter stopped at her answer.

"No?"

"You hurt me. You make false accusations against me. You are on of my closet friends," Delilah's voice was interrupted by the sound of a slap. 

He hit her.  
Mark hit her. 

Mark looked at Delilah who was now pulling away. What was her problem? What was she acting so stupid.

They were meant to be. She had known him since they were babies. They had spent their lives together. 

——————-

"Five minute till showtime," Mags heard as she waited for Delilah. 

She sat in the guest house on the edge of her seat waiting for the brunette to come. 

"She is probably running late or she missed the bus. She will be hear soon Mags, don't worry," Mags smiled at Steven who offered her a warm smile. 

She returned his smile and looked over towards Duff who shared a similar worry painted all over his face. 

"Yeah, she probably just missed her bus," Delilah said a little louder than needed, so Duff could hear. 

She knew he had a thing for Delilah. He was the least but subtle with his flirting with Delilah, but she probably didn't even know he was flirting. The poor girl was clueless at time which was both good and bad at the same time. 

"Knock them dead stevie!" Delilah put on one more fake smile as she punched her older brothers 

Once the guys left the room, Mags leaned bag in her chair and downed her beer. This wasn't good. She barely knew Delilah, but she didn't seem like the type of girl to be late. 

Seven hells she needed to take the edge off. She needed something to calm herself down. She needed at least a smoke, maybe something more if she could find it. 

She eyed the guy's stuff and after a couple of moments on debating if she should or shouldn't, she walked over towards their empty cases and other bags they used to carry their crap. 

She searched for an entire song until she found something. She opened the neatly folded piece of paper that was in Duff's case and unfolded to read it. 

Was she being bossy? Yes.  
Did she care? No.

She expected to see new song lyrics, but it was a list of jokes. They weren't even that good. 

Her personal favorite was one that Duff had actually scribbled out, and Mags was oh so glad she could read it. 

Are you a cake because you look Delly-icious right now. 

She laughed as she read it out loud.  
She continued to scan the list Duff had made. He was lucky she had found it and not one of the guys. They, especially Axl, would never let him live it down. 

How do you make Holy Water?  
You boil the hell out of it. 

I bought some new shoes from a drug dealer last night for real cheep. I don't know what he laced them with, but I've been tripping all day.

Did you know the first French fries weren't actually cooked in France? They were cooked in Greece. 

It was sweet. She continued to smile at the thought of Duff sitting in his room trying to think of horrible jokes to tell Delilah. She appreciated how they were clean, and not about sex or dicks or vaginas. 

—————

"I just need to see her, okay?" Mags said as she drove to Delilah's house. 

Her brother shook his head as he sat shotgun. Their gig had gone smoothly and he wanted nothing more than to go to sleep like the rest of the band, but Mags was persistent. 

It was 4 in the morning when she dragged Steven to their car as backup Incase she got lost. She had only been there once to drop her off the first night she met, but she did like to boast about how good her sense of direction. 

"This cant wait till the morning?" 

"No Stevie, it can't," 

"Why, Mags she's probably fine. I'll drive you down to see her tomorrow morning. Why are you so damn worried?" He was confused on why his little sister wanted to drive to check on Mags. She had been on the edge ever since Del didn't show up. Yeah, it stung but she probably got busy or couldn't escape. 

Steven's mind then sent back to the girl he met back at the gig. He was snapped back to reality at Mags words, "I'm worried because what if she did get caught...she called her mom mother. Not mom or mum or even by her mom's name like Dorthy or some shit. She called her mother, and you should have heard the way she said it. She was scared of her own Mother. Hell she was shaking the entire tone she was in the phone with her mom. It's not normal."

The two of them sat silent in the car before they parked a block from Delilah's house not wanting to draw attention to themselves. 

Mags froze before she hopped over the small fence.  
"Hey, Stevie stay here and stay hidden. You aren't exactly.....stealthy in your current state," Mags whispered as she watched her brother stumble over his own two feet as he followed her to the fence. 

Delilah's room was one that Mags had always wanted. White flowing curtains hung from the ceiling with small colored flowers scattered on them. The bright white desk and dresser contrasted perfectly with the powdered pink walls. She dreamed about it when she was younger, but now as she looked at the pillows that were thrown around the room. 

Mags stopped as she saw a small paper on the ground. Mags didn't know much about the Jesus stuff that Delilah liked, but she knew that this piece of paper, along with all the others scattered on the ground, were ripped from a bible. 

Mags hadn't noticed the torn paper when she saw Delilah. He heart broke as she looked at Delilah's tear stained pillow. Mag's eyes followed up to Delilah's face. That's when Mag's heart broke. A large purple bruise covered her left cheek. 

"What the hell," Mags didn't mean to say the words out loud waking Delilah.

Delilah shot to the opposite corner when she saw a figure in front of her bed. 

"Mags?" Delilah asked trying to hide in the shadows. 

"Yeah sorry...I didn't mean to startle you. I was worried," Mags was interrupted when Delilah brought her into a hug.

Delilah tried to hide her crying, but it to no avail. Once the first tear escaped from Delilah's tear the rest formed rivers as they escaped her eyes. Mag's mind raced as she tried to connect what had happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading!! More chapters coming soon!!!


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